Alcester & Ragley 1st (211-7) beat Rowington 1st (141 all out) by 70 runs

Alcester & Ragley got their league season off to the best possible start with a comprehensive win away at Rowington.

After losing the toss Ragley were asked to bat and the new look opening partnership of Michael Coombs and Adam Warbrick took the score confidently to 41 when Coombs was first out off the last ball of the 10th over, bowled by Oldfield for 15. Skipper Ben Lee then joined Warbrick and the pair scored quickly off the next 10 overs, with Warbrick dominating the bowling before he was surprisingly bowled for an excellent 61 in the 20th over. Gary Strain (20) and Lee then came up against some very tight bowling from Shaw (1-20) and Vickerstaff (0-34) who’s figures would have been even better had he not been hit for 2 sixes from the final 2 balls of his 10 over spell, the 2nd six bringing up Lee’s half century. The score had reached 177 when Lee was third out for 64 from the bowling of Gilbert. Four further wickets fell in the final few overs as Ragley batsmen tried to post a massive score. In the end they were indebted to a final over of 13 runs to lift them to a final total of 211-7. Oldfield was the leading wicket taker for Rowington as he took 3-41.

Rowington began positively in pursuit of the 212 runs needed to win, with Vickerstaff taking 9 runs from the 1st over of the innings and his opening partner Sly taking 10 from the 5th over before he was out in the same over after a smart catch at point by Peachey from the bowling of Sam Westwood. Rowington captain Scott Rogers then joined Vickerstaff and two of them kept Rowington in the hunt until Marc Woolley was introduced to the attack. He claimed Rogers lbw with the 1st ball of his spell to complete a remarkable league hat –trick after a break of 9 months when he had taken the final 2 wickets against Moreton with his final two balls of the 2008 season back in August! Next over Steve Capron bowled the dangerous Vickerstaff for 28 to leave the score at 57-3 from 19 overs and Rowington were falling further and further behind the run rate due to some excellent bowling from Capron and Woolley. Capron claimed the wickets of Smithy (24) and Gilbert (4) in an excellent unchanged spell of 10overs in which he took 3-23. Woolley was in usual miserly form as he claimed 1-7 from 6 overs. The writing was on the wall for Rowington at this stage as they required 100 to win from the final 12 overs with just 4 wickets left. Tom Morris (2-41) claimed the wicket of the big hitting Haywood for 18, and the final 3 wickets were shared between Westwood (2-34) and Julian Reader (2-33) as Rowington were dismissed for 141 in the 40th over to seal a win for Ragley after an excellent team performance.